Avner Shaki

Avner Shaki
Shaki in 1996
Ministerial roles
1988–1990	Minister without Portfolio
1990–1992	Minister of Religious Affairs
Faction represented in the Knesset
1970–1973	National Religious Party
1973–1974	Independent
1984–1999	National Religious Party
Personal details
Born	(1926-02-05)5 February 1926 Safed, Mandatory Palestine
Died	28 May 2005(2005-05-28) (aged 79)

Avner-Hai Shaki (Hebrew: אבנר-חי שאקי, 5 February 1926 – 28 May 2005) was an Israeli politician who served as a government minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Avner Shaki was born in Safed, the son of Hana (Nazli)^[1] and Rabbi Ovadia Shaki. He excelled as a student at the Alliance school. After completing his external matriculation certificate, he studied teaching at the Religious Teachers' Seminary in Jerusalem. Upon finishing his studies, he worked as a salaried teacher at an institution for juvenile offenders in Acre. After examining the conditions at the institution, he approached the Ministry of Welfare demanding the institution’s closure, which was subsequently carried out.^[2] In his youth, he also wrote poems, some of which were published in poetry collections. Shaki began studying law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and due to his excellence, he was awarded a full scholarship throughout his studies. In April 1955, he received his Master's degree in Law^[3] and in November 1955, he qualified as a lawyer.^[4] Upon completing his studies, he was invited to serve as a teaching assistant in Jewish law at the Faculty of Law at the university and published research on democratic regimes.^[5] Later, he received a Doctorate in Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem^[6] and became a professor of law (Private International Law, Family Law and Inheritance, Religion and State in Law) at Tel Aviv University.

Shaki's political career began when he attempted to lead an independent list for the student union but was not elected. Later, he founded the "Movement for the Advancement of Sephardic Communities." In January 1959, he was appointed by the Minister of Religious Affairs, Yaakov Moshe Toledano, to a committee investigating claims of discrimination against Sephardim in the composition of the religious council in Jerusalem.^[7] Ahead of the 1959 Israeli legislative election, he founded the "National Sephardic Party," which claimed discrimination against Sephardim, but it failed to pass the electoral threshold.^[8] Later, Shaki joined the National Religious Party (NRP). In the 1969 Israeli legislative election, he was placed 15th on the NRP list. He entered the 7th Knesset in 1970 following the death of Haim-Moshe Shapira. A month and a half later, when Micha Reiser was appointed Minister of Welfare, Shaki replaced him as Deputy Minister of Education and Culture in the 15th Government of Israel.

In July 1972, after voting in favor of an amendment to the Law of Return, regarding the definition of Who is a Jew according to Halakha, against the stance of the government and his party,^[9] he was dismissed from his position as Deputy Minister of Education.^[10] In April 1973, he resigned in protest from the NRP and became an independent Member of Knesset.^[11]

In the 1973 Israeli legislative election, he founded the "Movement for Social Equality," but it did not pass the electoral threshold.

In 1984, he rejoined the NRP and was elected to the 11th Knesset, serving continuously until the 14th Knesset. After the 1988 Israeli legislative election, where he served as the chairman of the movement, he was appointed a minister without portfolio in Yitzhak Shamir's government. Following the "Stinking Maneuver" in mid-1990 and the formation of a new government, Shaki was appointed Minister of Religious Affairs, a position he held until 1992. He appointed Shlomo Bekish as Director-General of the ministry. After competing against Rabbi Yitzhak Levi for the leadership of the NRP and the education portfolio in 1998, a contest he lost, Shaki announced he would not run for Knesset again and was appointed an associate president of the World Mizrachi Movement. During his tenure in the Knesset, he initiated the Passover Holiday Law together with Avraham Yosef Shapira.

In the 1999 Israeli legislative election, he was placed in the symbolic 120th spot on the NRP list for Knesset.^[12]

Shaki served as the chairman of the NRP office and chairman of the lobby to promote understanding between religious and secular people. He was also an honorary president of the Institute for the Study of the Family in Israel.

He passed away after a severe illness on May 28, 2005.

His sister, Esther Shaki-Arazi, was a poet.

His daughter, Smadar Gross, served for nine months as the head of the Religious Council in Kfar Saba and was the first woman to hold this position.^[13]

In 2021, he was commemorated with a street named after him in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem.^[14]

• Avner Shaki on the Knesset website